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Making It As
A Jewish Athlete

Although many Jews have distinguished
themselves in sports, it's only in the
Maccabiah that they haven't felt prejudice.

ELLI WOHLGELERNTER

Special to The Jewish News

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Thanks fora Wonderful 20 Year Reunion
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See You In 10 Years —

The Reunion Committee

Ken Korotkin
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16

FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1989

Lenie Bershad
Rob Leider
David Wiener
Bev Tepper
Barbara Szirtes Helen Kaye
Joni Fischer
Karen Gach
Margo Stocker Anita Mentzel
Leigh Herskovic Leon Weiss

ew York — "Find me
a good Jewish ball-
player," John
McGraw, the famous New
York Giants manager, once
said, "and I'll fill the ball
park." He tried, but could
never find the one star who
would be a sensation both on
the playing field and at the
box office.
Actually, Jews have made
their presence felt in the
sports world for years, and
still do. When the world's best
athletes meet in the Olym-
pics, Jews are there and have
always won their share of
medals.
Then there are the
quadrennial Maccabiah
Games in Israel, held one
year after the Olympics,
when Jewish athletes from all
over the world meet and
compete.
The Maccabiah, which
opened this year on July 3, is
similar to the Olympics, ex-
cept for two factors: Jews par-
ticipate in the Olympics as
men and women, with sports
as their common bond,
whereas Jewishness is the
common bond of Jews in the
Maccabiah, and sports are
almost an afterthought. Also,
no Jew ever encounters pre-
judice at the Maccabiah.
But for the Jewish
trailblazers in American
sports, it was a different story.
In American sports, to be
Jewish has meant to find
anti-Semitism and solitude
among one's peers, as well as
pride and distinction among
Jews. Above all, it has
brought athletes face to face
with their Jewish identity.
When Andy Cohen started
at second base for the New
York Giants on opening day
in 1928, the New York Times
declared in an editorial that
"much more than just a
baseball game is at stake."
The Times recognized that
Cohen symbolized not only
Jews striving to became part
of America, but also
America's accepting them. At
last, Jews were not only play-
ing, they were being cheered
on. A stadium, in fact, is the
largest gathering place
anywhere for cheers for
Jewish accomplishment.
Like Cohen, few Jewish
athletes ever hid their

Jewishness — actually, they
couldn't if they had wanted to.
But, while they were a sym-
bol to Jews and non-Jews
alike, to many non-Jews they
also were a focus of
anti-Semitism.
In the area of prejudice,
Jews and blacks
simultaneously had various
problems, and some observers
claim that they had similar
experiences in baseball. That
was not exactly the case.
The Jackie Robinson story
is well known. Like few
blacks before him, he brought
hope to the black community.
But, unlike Robinson,
Jewish athletes never faced
segregation. A Jew never
knew a "color line," never had
to ask a teammate to go into
a restaurant on a back road in
South Carolina to buy him a
sandwich while he waited in
the bus.

"Deep down, I
never felt I was
accepted. It was a
deep gut feeling
that a Jew is
always oppressed.
I learned: Be on
your guardP

thing," she explained. "But
what's a Jew? There was a
scattered Jew here or there."
Like Jackie Robinson, the
Jewish athlete always felt he
was regarded as a pariah by
his teammates, in a world
where he was not just one of
a minority group but a kind
of token.
When the Jew looked out on
the playing field, he saw no
other person like himself. So
he developed sharp feelings of
loneliness and insecurity.
"I felt like an outsider as a
Jew," said Saul Rogovin, who
led the American League in
Earned Run Average in 1951.
"Deep down, I never felt I was
accepted. It was a deep gut
feeling that a Jew is always
oppressed. I learned: Be on
your guard, because basical-
ly no one likes Jews; don't get
too close; keep everyone at a
distance. Being paranoid
because you're a Jew? Yes.
And you're lonely too."
Rogovin's wariness about
non-Jewish teammates was
often well-founded. And
though most Jewish athletes